July 16, 2008

You woke up one beautiful morning and you noticed how awesome the sunrise was. The morning was cool and there was dew on the grass. The fog was slowly lifting up from the horizon. It was perfect. You could even hear the birds greeting you with their melodic voices. Ahhh what a beautiful morning.

Then suddenly, you remembered something. Something that was said about you in the office. Maybe you did not turn in the report on time. Maybe you remembered the argument you had with a friend. Or that long list of things-to do which to this day is still simply a list. Maybe you remember the bills were piling up. Or the thought of answering an email from a person you disagree with…

Then suddenly, the beautiful morning is gone. The peace and quiet were replaced by anxious thoughts that are becoming more regular than they had been in the past. The stillness of the morning was replaced by the erratic, toxic thoughts. That my friend, is the tyranny of intrusive thoughts. You see nothing has changed, the morning is going on beautifully, but your mind has started to churn with its troubling and sometimes bitter thoughts.

It has been said that the power to master our thoughts is considered a moral victory. Irrational thoughts are oftentimes the culprit in how we feel and how we look at our world. These irrational thoughts are the foundational filters through which we process our thoughts and emotions.

For our well-being, it behooves all of us to discipline our thoughts. Just as a musician would practice for hours. Just an an athlete would prepare for a sports competition, the mastery of our thoughts would take concentrated efforts done many times.

How about you? Are you suffering from the intrusion of irrational thoughts? The Bible says we need to “cast down all imaginations” – which means to even surrender our thoughts to Christ. Snap out of the intruding thoughts in the beginning process. Do not let it sit and be comfortable and have its unhindered access in your mental thoughts and processes. We can redeem the control and master our thoughts as we bring every thought into captivity to Christ.